A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

Two chief’s daughters look at stars while resting in the forest during the salmon-fishing season. One wishes for the large bright star as a husband, the other for the red star. Boas’s text supplies Jupiter and Mars in parentheses; these identifications belong to the printed account rather than independently verified Indigenous astronomical names. The sisters awaken in the sky, where the stars are men and become their husbands. The bright star has diseased eyes. This appearance qualifies the attraction of its distant brilliance, without describing every star-person in the same way.

The husbands tell the women to gather onion stalks without digging out the roots. When the elder eventually digs one up, the hole reveals the earth below. The sisters secretly prepare a long rope, and the elder descends first, promising to shake it if she arrives safely. After reaching a mountain near Victoria Harbour, she has to move a considerable distance to send a faint signal through the rope. The younger fastens it to a tree and climbs down. Her legs become crooked from the long descent. Only after she reaches earth do the sky people cut the rope; the recorded escape does not end with either woman falling to her death.

Their long absence has left their mother grey-haired and grieving. A youngest sister fetching water finds them near a pool, but her reports are repeatedly disbelieved. Every encounter with the returned sisters lengthens her hair, which she had cut in mourning. When she finally points to this visible change, her parents investigate and recognize the missing women. The returnees stroke their mother’s hair, making it long and black again. The ending specifies that change rather than an unlimited restoration of youth or an explicit cure of her dim eyes. A final source statement makes the remaining rope visible only to a young man fulfilling particular purity requirements. That narrated visibility rule is not presented as an independently verified surviving object.

Stars appear as human husbandsProhibited root-digging reveals earthTwo-stage rope escapeHair restored through the returning sisters’ touch
01

Origins & earliest records

Boas’s 1895 German collection, section VII, groups this account under Lku’ngen. This historical spelling identifies the source’s regional division; no individual narrator or interview date is supplied for the tale.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete VII.2, pp.62–63 read in German, including the ending and qualifying wording, with original printed pages checked. The preface describes several collection and translation routes; a specific unrecorded route is not inferred for this episode.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Indianische Sagen von der Nord-Pacifischen Küste Amerikas

    Franz Boas · 1895

    Lku’ngen section VII.2, pp.62–63, complete narrative. Historical community spelling retained; original printed pages and collection preface inspected.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. PrimaryBoas 1895, Lku’ngen VII.2, pp.62–63Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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